


At The Going Down of The Sun

by LauramourFromOz



Series: Star Trek: All Stars [1]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: ANZACs Make Everything Better, Battle of Fromelles, Charge of Beersheba, F/F, Gallipoli - Freeform, Lest We Forget, M/M, Remembrance Day, Remembrance Day 2017, Subtle CornRell, Subtle Spirk, The 5533, We’re Rather Good That Way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-01-31 21:18:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12690399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LauramourFromOz/pseuds/LauramourFromOz
Summary: My annual Remembrance Day story. It’s kind of a study on how Picard would relate (as an archaeologist) to twentieth century warfare (especially WWI) and the ANZAC legend.





	At The Going Down of The Sun

**Author's Note:**

> I realised once I’d finished it that I’ve actually not finished anything else in this series and it’s not a particularly good starting point so I’ve put a Meta post for this universe up in the series. It has useful information like how everyone fits in and details of shipboard traditions like the insignias mentioned in this story.

Captain’s Personal Log: On his day in 1918 World War I ended and with their unbounded optimism, tarnished only mildly by, what was at the time, the bloodiest and most violent war in human history they proclaimed it the last. That war marks many milestones. The beginning of airborne warfare and the end of mounted warfare. It was a war fought in trenches gouged across Europe. I have stood on the beaches of Gallipoli and in the fields of Fromelles and I can’t help but wonder what they were like before the battles that happened there. I’m sure Fromelles saw battle before but never quite like that day in 1916. Nine thousand men dead in a single day. On a ship like Matilda I would be remiss not to mention that 5,533 of those were Australian. We are an ANZAC ship, as my chief of security is so fond of saying. It seems I was destined to captain an ANZAC ship. I was a part of an excavation at Fromelles while I was an undergraduate. In the intervening centuries, presumably, everything that was going to be found there would have been found. It was on that dig I learned that presumption is one of the basic tenants of bad archaeology. It is one, I certainly, will never hold again.

There are a lot of things I have found over the years but the one that stands out for me was something I found on the fields of Fromelles. It was an insignia of the Australian Defence Force, referred to at the time as a ‘Rising Sun’ badge. Holding that badge was as if I held history in my hands. There is a replica of it in my collection, the original lives at Le Musée de la Bataille de Fromelles witch was built next to the cemetery where most of the recovered Australian and British casualties are buried.

The Charge of Beersheba in 1917 was the last great cavalry charge in history. It interests me that these two distinct forms of warfare were happening concurrently. The great cavalry tradition is not something we associate with that of The RAF and its successors.

There are a lot of replica Rising Suns on Matilda this week. It was a tradition long before she was my ship. They, along with the insignias of other branches of world militaries of the past, are worn beneath Starfleet insignia. I must confess a certain fascination with the extra insignias my crew decode to wear. Most go with their countries of origin. Some claim ancestral connections, no matter how tenuous. A number of the Australians also chose to wear the insignia of The New Zealand Defence Force in addition to their own as a tribute to that legendary Trans-Tasman union.

I take a great deal of pride in my crew. They are truly Starfleet’s finest.

Our Non-Human contingent also wear their own historical emblems during this period. I find it fascinating to see witch powers my crew identify with and chose to represent with the insignias they wear. Beside my own French insignias my Rising Sun. Like so many of my crew who chose to fill their second space with the rising sun, I have no claim to it outside my kinship with the Australians on this ship and my role as witness. 

I Stood in that field where 5,533 Australians gave their lives, twice as many as any other nation present combined. I uncovered that little part of history beneath a field in my homeland and in that moment I became witness and I became irreversibly connected to the culture that sent it to rest thousands of miles from home.

There are a lot of things I could say to mark this day. About war. About peace. About comradeship. Mateship. Command. Sacrifice.

Instead I will use the words that have served four the last four centuries:

_At the going down of the sun, and in the morning._

_We will remember them._

**Author's Note:**

> I originally intended to have this up for the 100th anniversary of the Charge of Beersheba (31st of October 1917). But I wasn’t happy with it (it isn’t a campaign I know a lot about but it is incredibly historically important) so I reworked it to have Picard find his Rising Sun at Fromelles instead of Beersheba which (for a lot of reasons) works better archaeologically.
> 
> I didn’t manage to work it in but they also wear Poppies as part of their Remembrance Day/Week tradition.
> 
> Also, Fun Fact: The Royal Air Force was the first air force in the world (founded 1st April 1918) The Royal Australian Air Force was the second. WWI was both the first war to use aerial warfare and the last to use cavalry warfare.
> 
> I'm happy to answer any queries about the universe.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Star Trek: All Stars Meta](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12690549) by [LauramourFromOz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LauramourFromOz/pseuds/LauramourFromOz)




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